=?X-UNKNOWN?Q?a1766=3A__Obit_--_=5BISO-8859-1=5D_Herv=E9_Deni?==?X-UNKNOWN?Q?s_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   Haiti's most prominent man of theater, Herve Denis, dead at 62

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 22 (AP) -- Herve Denis, a former Culture Minister
in Haiti and the country's most prominent man of theater, died Sunday of
cancer. He was 62.
   The burly, gravel-voiced Denis had been active as actor and director in
avant-garde theater productions in France in the l970s.
   An economist by profession, he returned to his homeland in the early
1980s. Arrested by the secret police of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, he
was beaten and released after several days in detention.
   After a popular uprising ousted Duvalier in 1986, Denis divided his time
between teaching high school economics and directing a theater troupe.
   His production of Aime Cesaire's The Tragedy of King Christophe in the
l990s was his greatest success.
   From 1993 to 1995, Denis was culture and communication minister under
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in exile in the United States during the
1991-94 period of military-backed rule. Denis joined Aristide in exile
several months before a U.S. intervention restored Aristide to power in
September 1994 and returned with him to their homeland.
   Former President Rene Preval, who succeeded Aristide in 1996, twice
nominated Denis to be premier but the Haitian Parliament, in a power
struggle with Preval, refused to confirm his choice.
   Denis fell out with Aristide, denouncing what he said were dictatorial
tendencies, and briefly contemplated running against him in the November
2000 presidential race.